Step 3: Testing the Deployed Packages

In this task, you will test the packages that you deployed to an instance of SQL Server.

In other Integration Services tutorials, you ran packages in SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT), the development environment for Integration Services, using the Start Debugging option on the Debug menu. This time you will run the packages differently.

Integration Services provides several tools that you can use to run packages in the test and production environment: the command prompt utility dtexec and the Execute Package Utility. The Execute Package Utility is a graphical tool that is built on dtexec. Both of these tools execute the package immediately. In addition, SQL Server provides a subsystem of SQL Server Agent that is especially designed for scheduling package execution as a step in a SQL Server Agent job.

You will use the Execute Package Utility to run the deployed packages. The packages will be used as is; therefore, you do not have to update information on any pages in the dialog box. You will run the packages from the General page, which is the first page in the Execute Package Utility. If you like, you can click the other pages too see the information that they contain for each package.

Note

To ensure that the packages run successfully in the context of this tutorial, you should not modify any options.

Before you run packages in SQL Server Management Studio by using the Execute Package Utility, ensure that the Integration Services service is running. The Integration Services service provides support for package storage and execution. If the service is stopped, you cannot connect to Integration Services and SQL Server Management Studio does not list the packages to run. You also must have permissions to run the package on the instance where the package has been deployed. For more information, see Integration Services Roles (SSIS Service).

The top-level folders within the Stored Packages folder are the user-defined folders that Integration Services service monitors. You can specify as many or few folders in the MsDtsSrvr.ini.xml file as you want. This tutorial assumes that you are using the default MsDtsSrvr.ini.xml file, and that the names of the top-level folders within Stored Packages are File System and MSDB.

To connect to Integration Services in SQL Server Management Studio

Click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server, and then click SQL Server Management Studio.

In the Connect to Server dialog box, select Integration Services in the Server type list, provide a server name in the Server name box, and click Connect.

Important

If you cannot connect to Integration Services, the Integration Services service is likely not running. To learn the status of the service, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Microsoft SQL Server, point to Configuration Tools, and then click SQL Server Configuration Manager. In the left pane, click SQL Server Services. In the right pane, find the Integration Services service. Start the service if it is not already running.

SQL Server Management Studio opens. By default the Object Explorer window is open and placed in the upper right corner of the studio. If Object Explorer is not open, click Object Explorer on the View menu.

To run the packages using the Execute Package Utility

In Object Explorer, expand the Stored Packages folder.

Expand the MSDB folder. Because you deployed the packages to SQL Server, all the deployed packages are stored in the msdb SQL Server database, and all deployed packages appear in the MSDB folder. The File System folder is empty, unless you have deployed packages to the file system outside of the Deployment Tutorial.

Starting at the top of the package list, right-click DataTransfer, and click Run Package.

In the Execute Package Utility dialog box, click Execute.

In the Execute Package Utility dialog box, view the progress and execution results of the package. When the Stop button becomes unavailable, which indicates that the package has completed, click Close.

Important

If you click Stop while the package is running, the package will not finish.

In the Execute Package Utility dialog box, click Close.

Repeat steps 3 - 6 for the LoadXML package.

On the File menu, click Exit.

To verify the results of the DataTransfer package

On the toolbar in SQL Server Management Studio, click New Query.

In the Connect to Server dialog box, select Database Engine in the Server type list, provide the name of the server name on which you installed the tutorial packages or type (local) in the Server name box, and select an authentication mode. If using SQL Server Authentication, provide a user name and password.

Click Connect.

In the query window, type or paste the following SQL statement:

USE AdventureWorks

SELECT * FROM HighIncomeCustomers

Press F5 or click the Execute icon on the toolbar.

The query returns 31 rows of data. The return result contains any rows from the text file, Customers.txt, that have values larger than 100000 in the YearlyIncome column.

Locate the DeploymentTutorial folder, right-click the log XML file, Deployment Tutorial Log, and then click Open. You can open the file by using Notepad or the text/XML editor of choice.

To verify the results of the LoadXMLData package

On the toolbar in SQL Server Management Studio, click New Query.

If prompted to connect again, in the Connect to Server dialog box, select Database Engine in the Server type list, provide the name of the server on which you installed the tutorial packages or enter (local) in the Server name box, and select an authentication mode. If using SQL Server Authentication, provide a user name and password.

Click Connect.

In the query window, type or paste the following SQL statement:

USE AdventureWorks

SELECT * FROM OrderDatesByCountryRegion

Press F5 or click the Execute icon on the toolbar.

The query returns 21 rows of data. The return result consists of the rows from the XML data file, orders.xml. Each row is a summary by country/region; the row lists the name of a country/region, the number of orders for each country/region and the dates of the newest and oldest orders.